Books: Naturalists on the Isthmus of Panama

Naturalists on the Isthmus of Panama:
A Hundred Years of Natural History on the Biological Bridge of the Americas
by Stanley Heckadon Moreno
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama 2004
271 pp, paperback

Stanley Heckadon, the Chiriqui native who was Panama's top environmental watchdog during part of the Endara administration and who now heads the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute's (STRI's) Public Programs, is not a natural historian by profession, nor is he formally educated in the history of science. "It's a hobby of mine," he told a recent meeting of the Panama Historical Society (of which he is a member). "I'm an anthropologist and sociologist by training."

However, in his present position and others that he has held before that, Heckadon constantly runs into scientific history. Do you want to know how badly Panama has been deforested? For that you need to consider "before" and "after," and the baseline "before" relies heavily on the reports of the first naturalists to study Panama. Might you want to track the population trends of Panama's birds, deer or crabs? Again the records go back to early observers.

Thus Heckadon found himself searching through many archives and museums for information related to his work. Formal training or not, it turned him into the foremost expert on the history of scientific research in Panama. That, in turn, was one of the things that prompted Mario Lewis, at the time the publisher of Epoca, a publication that now appears as a supplement in La Prensa but which is older than La Prensa, to ask Heckadon to write a monthly column on the pioneers of Panamanian biology. He accepted, and his Spanish-language columns formed the core of this and a prior Spanish-language book.

"Suddenly, I got a passion for this," Heckadon said. "It's like detective work --- I track documents and people."

How many people? The book centers on 17 individual or team efforts, beginning with those of the German botanist Berthold Seemann, who came here as part of the British Navy's 1846-1851 exploratory voyage of the HMS Herald, and ending with the 1939-1981 exploits of Panamanian attorney and amateur ornithologist Eugene Eisenmann Brandon. If you remember the old field guides to this country's birds, fauna and fishes, this is the story you didn't know behind the people who wrote them.

This beautifully produced book, with many black-and-white illustrations on sepia-tone paper, is a "must read" item for anyone who wants to understand Panamanian history from a holistic perspective. It's also a captivating series of little adventure tales. More likely than not, it will turn out to be a powerful recruiting tool to bring bright young scientists in search of adventures of their own to Panama and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.

There are a lot of talented people, who have produced a number of really good books, at STRI. "Naturalists on the Isthmus of Panama" is one more reason, and one of the more compelling ones, for you to go to a book-buying expedition to the excellent little bookstore at STRI's Tupper Center in Ancon.

Also in this section:
Books: Heckadon's "Naturalists on the Isthmus of Panama"
Cool Internet sites
Books: Henderson's "Don't Kill the Cow Too Quick"

review

Yet another good reason to visit STRI's bookstore